Linda R.
My mother died 10 years ago of undiagnosed, untreated leaky gut. Even though she had obvious problems, the GI doctors had no idea what was wrong with her. It was a nightmare watching her suffer, and driving her to countless doctor’s appointments only to walk away empty-handed. She had so much pain. She was on Oxycotin and also massive amounts of IV antibiotics to treat diverticulitus. Her poor gut was a total mess. We finally got her to a surgeon who read the earlier scans, which were taken and read by the GI specialist, to find that she needed immediate surgery. The surgeon actually asked us: “Did the GI doctor think this was OK?”.
Mom was too weak to have an operation, and could no longer digest food, so they put a central line in her and fed her liquid food to build up her strength. This went on for several weeks and the day before her surgery, so was brought to the hospital with a 105 degree fever. During her emergency operation, she suffered a heart attack, her intestines were falling apart in the surgeon’s hands, and could not be repaired. As a result she ultimately died of sepsis.
This was such a nightmare for our family and completely avoidable. Now 3 of her 4 children are having symptoms like she did. Two of us went to GI doctors, to find that they have learned nothing in the past 10 years. We both then went to functional doctors, who were enormously helpful. We were diagnosed with leaky gut and took the time to learn about it. We changed or diet (gluten-free and dairy-free), started taking supplements, and are doing much better.
It is amazing to me that gluten can wreak such havoc in the body, and literally kill us if we don’t take steps to eliminate it from our diet. If only we knew then what we know now.